Centre

DF: In the text presenting your performance, you mention the idea of the "coloniality" of institutions. I think the term is in line with what you said earlier: a decolonial process begins with the ability to name it.

HMF: Yes, I was reminded of the question Walter D. Mignolo asks us: "where and how does coloniality affect us?” We must identify it, try to see and feel it, as it acts differently in each of us depending on our place in the institution. In order to engage in a decolonial process, one must feel the need to do so, and to do so, one must be aware of the violence that certain modes of power entail. There are two interrelated questions: how does this violence feel, and how are we part of it? The performance reminds us that these questions are intimately linked to the body.

DF: Can you tell me more about these invisible links that you have observed, and that you make visible in the video process and in the performance?

HMF: It was important for my research to open up. Instead of simplifying, I wanted to respect its complexity and the need to add new references. This is an approach I learned from the collective movement of feminism—the importance of making connections and making the work of my colleagues visible. I was mindful of the events that occurred during my time in the education room from April 2 to March 6. So I refer to the presence of artists who are reflecting on the recognition and reaffirmation of their bodies at the same time as me, like arkadi lavoie-lachapelle and LaViolette (Se toucher, presented in Montreal from March 11 to 14) and like Johana Cervantes, Elsy Arango, Maira Bertel (De la Implosión a la Impronta, presented online from March 12 to April 12). Also, I think that this pandemic period invites us to use technology to break down the barrier of geographical and temporal boundaries. My intervention transits through Mexico when I quote Sayak Valencia or Francesca Gargallo, through Colombia when I mention María Teresa Hincapié and Las Meninas Emputás!, through Cali and New York when I talk about Extractivismo (2015) by María Evelia Marmolejo.

Another key reference was Rosamond S. King's Sable International, a performance presented in Montreal as part of Encuentro in 2014, which took place not too far from the Foundation. I was lucky enough to see this work, which paid tribute to health care workers of African and Caribbean descent. Why hasn't this very pertinent work, which is still very relevant, been given more visibility? Why is the work that the performance pays tribute to often invisible as well? These are some of the questions that need to be asked.

Ultimately, I wanted to approach the objects in the education archive with the same care as works on exhibit. They are precious objects, remnants of educational experiences. I also felt, in these objects, traces of the cultural mediators who had handled them, or had thought them up. In the objects, one could see the traces of the questions they asked, the reflections they gave to the public. I wanted to associate these questions with those asked by the artists in their works, to make these common links visible. I set up a dialogue between these thoughts, as we are part of the same conversation.